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From: lulue@manta.NOSC.MIL (Dan Lulue )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Saving data from one launch to another
Message-ID: <975@manta.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 13 Dec 89 00:08:35 GMT
Organization: Computer Sciences Corporation
Lines: 26

I need to save the location of a data file from one launch to another.
The user points out the file's location via Std File, and my program
"remembers" it for the next time.  I am constrained to using UNIX sytle
string pathnames.  Is it preferable to save the string in a 'STR ' resource in
application's resource fork, or in the data fork?  I tried the resource fork by
creating a 'STR ' resource, doing a GetString (which does a
GetResource('STR ',ID), changing the string pointed to by the
handle, calling ChangedResource, then WriteResource, etc.  However, 
the new string never shows up in the resource fork (ResEdit view) after
execution (the dummy string I placed there originally is still there).
The 'STR ' resource was not purgable, but I called SetResPurge
anyway, along with several other things suggested by Chernicoff to
prevent the changed resource data from disappearing before being
written.

Chernicoff also suggests that the data fork is a good place to store
this sort of data.  Does opening the data fork of the running
application mean doing an FSOpen on the application?  If so, how does 
one get the vRefNum of the directory the application resides in?

Any tips would really be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan Lulue
lulue@nosc.mil